Ammonia

[Miss Wiggle]

yes, you won't get a true reading with it in the tank.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

ive had a reading of ammonia 8 for ;ast 5 days and fish look absolutely fine , do you think this is correct reading as ammo lock has been added everyday with water change

 

[Miss Wiggle]

honestly can't say.

up to you if you want to take a chance on weather the reading's accurate.

try doing a water change without ammo lock and test afterwards, can always add ammo lock after testing which shouldn't make much difference

 

[rdd1952]

does using ammo lock and a filter feed like bacinettes or cycle effect the ammonia. as ammo lock is locking it and slowly realising it

ammo lock actually converts ammoni to ammonium, it's less harmful to fish but bacteria can still feed on it. you can use a combination of ammo lock and bactinettes

The one problem with bactinettes is that it doesn't contain the proper bacteria for processing nitrite. So it will help with building your ammonia processing bacteria but not the nitrite. you will have to keep an eye on the nitrite to keep it from getting out of hand.

can ammo lock affect test kit reading??

The effect it has is to confuse you. The kits we use measure total ammonia which is ammonia + ammonium (what ammo-lock converts ammonia to). So the reading you get will still show the same before and after adding ammo-lock. It will just be non-toxic (supposedly). Keep in mind that a single dose of ammo-lock only locks up to the 3 ppm of ammonia and only works on the ammonia present in the tank at the time it is added. Any subsequent ammonia produced by the fish will still be toxic. So if you have a reading of 4ppm, you would need to double dose.

ive had a reading of ammonia 8 for ;ast 5 days and fish look absolutely fine , do you think this is correct reading as ammo lock has been added everyday with water change

If you have been adding ammo-lock the ammonia is most likely not toxic (there's the confusing part). I think the level you have though may inhibit the bacteria colony's reproduction and growth so I would start doing water changes to get the ammonia level down. You should really try to get it down below .25 ppm, not so much because it is toxic since you are using ammo-lock, but because once the bacteria start processing it into nitrite, you don't want super high levels there.